3o6 sturtevant's notes on edible plants 



Hoffmanseggia stricta Benth. Leguminosae. 



Mexico. This herb has an esculent, tuberous rootstock.' 



Holboellia latifolia Wall. Berberideae. 



Himalayan regions. This is the kole-pot of the Lepchas; the fruit is eaten in Sikkim 

 but is mealy and insipid.' This plant is called gophla and the fruit is eaten.' 



Hordeum deficiens Steud. Gramineae. red sea barley. 



Abyssinia. This is one of the two-rowed barleys cultivated in Arabia and Abyssinia.^ 



H. distichon Linn, barley. 



Parent of cultivated forms. This is the common barley of cultivation and occurs 

 in niunerous varieties. Meyer ^ found it growing wild between Lenkoran and Baku; 

 Koch,' on the Steppes of Schirwan in the southeast of the Caucasus; Kotschy,' in South 

 Persia. Forster * reports it as wild in the region near the confluence of the Samara and 

 the Volga. Barley was cultivated, says Pickering,' at the time of the invention of writing 

 and standing crops are figured under the fifth, seventh and seventeenth dynasties of 

 Egypt, or about 2440 B. C, 1800 B. C. and 1680 B. C. It is mentioned as among the 

 things that were destroyed by the plagues of Egypt.^" The flour of barley was the food 

 of the Jewish soldiers." The Egyptians claimed that barley was the first of the cereals 

 made use of by man and trace its introduction to their goddess, Isis. Barley was in all 

 times considered by the Greeks, says Heer,'^ as a sacred grain and was exclusively used 

 in sacrifices and in the great festival held every year at Eleusis in honor of agricvilture. 

 Pliny '^ terms it antiquissimum frumentum, the most ancient cereal, but, according to 

 Suetonius, it was considered an ignominious food by the Romans. Common barley, 

 says Unger,'* came to Europe by the way of Egypt; and the Romans were acquainted 

 with the two- and the six-lined barley, and the Greeks with these varieties and the bere 

 barley. Barley was long the grain most extensively cultivated in England. It appears 

 on the coins of the early Britons and was not only the grain from which their progenitors, 

 the Cimbri, made their bread but from which they made their favorite beverage, beer.'* 

 Herodotus describes beer made from barley as among the drinks of the Egyptians in his 



'Havard, V. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 501. 1885. 



' Hooker, J. D. Illustr. Himal. Pis. PL X. 1855. 



Brandis, D. Forest Fl. 571. 1876. 



<MueUer,F. Set. Pis. 232. 1891. 



' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 302. 1859. 



Ibid. 



' Ibid. 



' Humboldt, A. Views Nat. 129. 1850. 



Pickering, C. Chron. Hist. Pis. 34. 1879. {H. vulgare) 

 " Exodus 9:31. 

 " 2nd Samuel 17:28. 

 " Heer Agr. Ohio 14:283. 1859. 

 "Humboldt, A. Views Nat. 129. 1850. 

 ' Unger, F. U. S. Pat. Off. Rpt. 302. 1859. 

 "Johnson, C. W. Journ. Agr. ist Ser. 11:484. 



